Oksana Marafioti

Monday, June 3rd, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Oksana Marafioti, author of American Gypsy, will discuss writing an revealing memoir–how much to embellish, and how much must absolutely stay true to reality.  She has great advice to give on writing memoirs, so if you are planning on writing one or any autobiographical work, be sure to attend!

Oksana Marafioti was born in Riga, Latvia and grew up in a stage family, spending her childhood on concert tours with a Russian Romani troupe led by her grandfather, Andrei Kopylenko. She moved to America at fifteen and went to Hollywood High Performing Arts Magnet School.  Since then she has graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, worked in the film industry, married, had a couple of awesome kids, run a piano studio, obtained dual American-Italian citizenship through ancestry research, moved to Florence and then Rome, returned to the States, pitched an urban fantasy to a literary agent, ended up writing American Gypsy: A Memoir instead, and most recently, been awarded a fellowship for her next book project at the Black Mountain Institute-Kluge Center in partnership with the Library of Congress.

Join us for an evening with Oksana and learn about writing memoirs, her memoir, American Gypsy, the truth about Romani culture and a lot more.

Saturday, May 11th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

It’s a party!!

Join us for a wine, snacks and more than a taste of Paris when Wanderland Writers editors, Linda Watanabe McFerrin and Joanna Biggar, and contributors to the next Wanderland Writers anthology toast the City of Light. You can order your Wandering in Paris anthology in advance at this event or just sit back and enjoy the promise of great stories to come.

Readers will include:

• Unity Barry
• Mary Brent Cantarutti
• Antoinette Constable
• Kitty Hughes
• Laurie King
• Catherine Pyke
• Cindy Rasicot
• Anne Sigmon

and more …

Check out the Wanderland Writers website for more information for all the wonderful Wanderland Writers anthologies and adventures!

David Downie

Monday, May 6th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage || Corte Madera
51 Tamal Vista Drive, Corte Madera ||www.bookpassage.com

Whether you are worldly, unworldly, other-worldly or out-of-this-worldly, you won’t want to miss our May Literary Salon.

Renowned travel writer David Downie will share the tools of his trade with us. David has written extensively about world travel and Paris in particular, with books like Paris, Paris: Journey to the City of Light, Paris City of Night, and his most recent Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. He’ll talk about travel, travel writing and Paris and answer questions about exploring a place or a passion and writing about it.  Trust us, there can be no better guide through those topics. Time spent with David is always an adventure.

David Downie is a native San Franciscan who moved to Paris in the mid-1980s and divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in over 50 leading print publications worldwide. He is currently a European contributor to the Internet’s popular literary travel website Gadling.com, and co-owner and operator (with Alison Harris) of Paris, Paris Tours (custom walking tours of Paris, Burgundy, Rome & the Italian Riviera).

Downie is the author of ten nonfiction books and two thrillers. His latest book is Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James (April 2013). His nonfiction includes Enchanted Liguria: A Celebration of the Culture, Lifestyle and Food of the Italian Riviera; Cooking the Roman Way: Authentic Recipes from the Home Cooks and Trattorias of Rome (now also an e-book); and Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, a critically acclaimed collection of travel essays. Downie’s latest food-and-wine-related books are Food Wine The Italian Riviera & Genoa, Food Wine Rome, and Food Wine Burgundy. Another recent title is Quiet Corners of Rome, a loving exploration of The Eternal City, with striking photos by Alison Harris.

Join us for the 7th Annual Book Passage Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference. The Conference will cover all aspects of writing and illustrating for children—from developing ideas to honing skills to finding a publisher. Participants will work closely with other writers and illustrators, as well as with agents, editors, and publishers. The conference is designed to meet the differing needs of those who create for different age groups. Participants will choose an area of emphasis for the morning sessions, such as writing for picture books, early readers, young adult books or illustration, and then work with a teacher in a workshop setting. In the afternoon, participants choose from panels of common interest, such as working with editors, working with agents, marketing and promotion. There will be many opportunities for faculty and participants to talk, laugh, and exchange ideas in classes, lunches, and at evening events.

Faculty includes:

• Shirin Yim Bridges, award-winning author and publisher of children’s books
• Andrea Alban, author of nine books including the YA novel Anya’s War
• Julie Downing, internationally published author and illustrator
• Daniel Harmon, Editorial Director of Zest Books
• Amy Novesky, independent children’s book editor, creative director, and co-founder of Ever After Studio
• Left Coast Writers® Founder, Linda Watanabe McFerrin

Left Coast Writers® receive a 10% discount on their registration fee, so be sure to let them know you are a member!

My family took a six-hour road trip from Oakland to Sequoia National Park last week. My husband, Michael, was the driver. I’m the trusty navigator with maps, AAA tour book and the 800 number that helps locate In-N-Out Burger locations along Highway 99.

My ten-year-old son, Nick, and his buddy, Josh, sat in the back seat, zoning out with iPods and handheld video games. We’d instructed them that electronics would only be allowed in the car while traveling to and from Sequoia. No electronics during the five days in the park. So Nick and Josh were getting in their last fix.

Separation anxiety for ten-year-old boys from electronics is very real. Josh and Nick were a bit bored the first couple of days. They were underwhelmed with the General Sherman Tree, the biggest tree in the world. Both thought it would be bigger. The tunnel log was deemed a rip off.

We hiked the 380 steps up Moro Rock on our second day. Josh stopped at about the halfway mark. He was too tired to keep climbing and was freaked out at being so high. Thereafter, he’d shoot me an evil eye when I’d outline our next hike.

Both boys were pissed that there were only thirteen channels on the TV in our room and that the picture was grainy. They put forth a valiant effort to watch the screen our first night, but then declared it unwatchable.

By day three, the shift in interest started, as I’d hoped it would. My son asked if I’d buy him a book to read. He also earned the designation of Junior Ranger of Sequoia National Park by completing a booklet of educational activities.

Josh couldn’t care less about the Junior Ranger program. However, he thrilled at catching trout in Stony Creek and loved his first experience of swimming in an alpine lake. Touring Crystal Caves was creepy enough to count as fun.

We lucked out our fourth day in Sequoia when we drove into the parking lot at Cascade Meadow and saw two rangers at the edge of the lot. Two mama bears, one with two cubs and the other with three, were vying for domination. One adorable brown cub mistakenly climbed up a tree occupied by two cubs of the other mother. That mother rushed up the tree with a fierce growl and swatted the interloper to the ground. We were glued to the scene for the next two hours, watching the mothers face off with growls a few times. We held our collective breaths, wondering if a fight was coming. Nick and Josh said this drama was way better than the Discovery Channel.

On our last morning, Josh asked if we could go back to Moro Rock. He wanted to challenge himself by hiking to the top. Josh made the entire climb – a hot, sweaty and proud boy.

We returned to the car and started our journey home. Earplugs came out and the boys switched on the electronics for the long drive. But they’ve got a little more between their ears than when we left Oakland.

Marianne Lonsdale lives with her husband, Michael, and son, Nicholas, in Oakland, California.  She writes personal essays and short stories, and is now focused on developing a novel.  Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Literary Mama, Fiction365, The Sun, and Pulse.  She’s read at various events including San Francisco’s Litquake festival.

Marianne is a co-founder of the group, Write On, Mamas! http://writeonmamas.com She is also a member of Left Coast Writers® and is honored to be an alumna of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley.

Connie Bennett

Saturday, April 13th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Sugar and carb junkies, get help to free yourself from your potentially deadly addiction with The Sugar Liberator Connie Bennett, author of the international bestseller Beyond Sugar Shock: The 6-Week Plan to Break Free of Your Sugar Addiction & Get Slimmer, Sexier & Sweeter.

Beyond Sugar Shock has been praised by a Who’s Who of health and empowerment experts, including Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup, and Dr. Daniel Amen. Connie’s second book is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Connie’s acclaimed bestseller, Sugar Shock! How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life—And How You Can Get Back on Track, which has been praised by America’s Favorite Doctor, Dr. Mehmet Oz.”

In this Book Passage program, Connie—a charismatic transformational speaker, journalist, life coach, health coach, and self-mocking former sugar addict—will give her insights and simple starter secrets to:

• Activate the positive power of procrastinating. (This is a simple tool to calm your cravings.)
• Dodge the #1 mistake nearly everyone makes when quitting or reducing sweets.
• Decode and even make peace with your nagging sugar cravings.
• Pick yourself up after you’ve “slipped” and fallen off your sugar-free or no-sugar plan.
• Dissolve your desire for dangerous sweets, while still enjoying your cherished chocolate. (You’ll even get healthy recipes for tasty treats.)
• Stop being duped by innocent-looking foods that are actually sugar traps.

Connie’s sour-to-sweet journey began in 1998, when she was pummeled by 44 ailments, including crushing fatigue, brain fog, horrible headaches, rollercoaster mood swings, and severe PMS. When Connie’s new doctor blamed every single symptom on her excessive sugar habit and ordered her to quit consuming her cherished sweets, Connie reluctantly complied. Much to her surprise, all her ailments vanished, and Connie became energetic, focused, and free. She triumphed over her sugar habit after years of failing, because shedding her dangerous habit, she created or discovered cool, simple tools that helped her transform the dreaded, difficult undertaking into a positive, fun-filled, life-changing adventure.

Since 2001, Connie has been coaching, guiding, inspiring, and uplifting thousands of people worldwide on how to easily triumph over beat their carb addiction so they can discover that Life is Sweeter When Sugar Doesn’t Seduce You.™

Now, Connie runs her popular Sugar Freedom Now Retreat (virtual, recorded, and live), which is the companion program to Beyond Sugar Shock. She is also host of the Gab with the Gurus Radio Show, for which she interviews top names in a variety of fields from health to the Law of Attraction. Connie studied at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Get free gifts at www.Connie-Bennett.com

Monday, April 8th, 2013 || 6pm
Book Passage || San Francisco
1 Ferry Building, San Francisco ||www.bookpassage.com

We are spending an evening in the South!!

Join Left Coast Writers and the Southern Sampler Artists Colony as they evoke the dreamy, sometimes steamy world of Charleston and beyond in an exciting sampler of poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and other treats in this celebration of all things Southern.

• Mary Brent Cantarutti
• Unity Barry
• Marianne Betterly
• Cindy Rasicot
• Cheryl Armstrong
• Kitty Hughes

—and More!

Patricia Bracewell

Monday, April 1st, 2013 || 7pm

Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

We hope all of you will come out for this very special event. Our beloved Roadwork editor, Patricia Bracewell, will be speaking about her experience writing historical fiction. Her recently released novel,  Shadow on the Crown (Viking, 2012), has been very well received and critically acclaimed. Patricia will be discussing the research that goes into writing such a novel, how much to fabricate and how much to keep to the facts, and other problems one may face when writing fact-based fiction.

Patricia Bracewell is a native of California where she taught literature and composition before embarking upon her writing career. A lifelong fascination with British history and a chance, on-line reference to an unfamiliar English queen led to years of research, a summer history course at Downing College, Cambridge, and the penning of her debut novel Shadow of the Crown. Set in 11th century England, Shadow is the first book of a trilogy about Emma of Normandy who was a queen in England and a power behind the throne for nearly four decades. Patricia is working on the two follow-up novels in the series, but takes time out for tennis, gardening and travel. She is the mother of two grown sons and lives with her husband in Northern California.

Good luck!

Cynthia Greenberg

Saturday, March 9th, 2013 || 7pm
Book Passage-Corte Madera|| 51 Tamal Vista Dr. Corte Madera ||
www.bookpassage.com

Travelers, writers, mystery lovers, you won’t want to miss this event. Burmese Jade, a Mystery is a new mystery novel by Cynthia Greenberg that takes place in Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand and features an interesting set of characters, all strangely a part of the same tour group. This includes a jewel thief, a smuggler, an ex-spy, and a Buddhist monk, among others. The main character is a French photojournalist who is searching for information about her grandfather’s mysterious disappearance.  A young couple from Texas, accidentally film a murder while on the same tour with all of these people.  Come and see how it turns out!

Cynthia Greenberg has been writing about her travels since 1973, when she studied film-making, writing and photography at the American University in Rome, Italy. She put herself through school acting in spaghetti westerns and had a cameo role in the Godfather Part II. Her essay Vespa 73 appears in the award-winning anthology Greece, a Love Story (Bay Area Travel Writer’s 2007 best travel book). She lives in Marin County, California with her husband Jake and two Persian cats. Burmese Jade is her first novel.